Notre Dame football finished up their 5-day camp at Culver Academy on Thursday and will take Friday off before returning to practice on Saturday in what should be the debut of the new indoor practice field. The media will be present for that session and was witness to Thursday’s practice, as well. This time, the media were able to see the Fighting Irish in pads for the first time during camp.

First, some injury news to cover.

TE Cole Kmet – Confirmed to have suffered a broken collarbone in practice on Thursday. The reports are that he’s out for 3 to 6 weeks and the longer end of recovery seems much more likely. I wasn’t quite on the bandwagon of Kmet being a superstar so this feels like an injury that can be weathered but it’s never good to lose a starter.

OT Quinn Carroll – On Wednesday night it was reported he has suffered a knee injury that will keep him out for the 2019 season. Not a huge blow but Carroll was projected to be the best of the freshmen lineman and could’ve used a full year of practice to develop for 2020.

RB Jahmir Smith – The backup running back broke his hand earlier this week and has been still practicing with a cast on as you’ll see below. That’s pretty rugged to stay on the field, even for practice. It can’t be easy to handle the ball right now.

Several other players were seen working on conditioning on the sidelines for practice number five with non-serious injuries including corner Houston Griffith, corner Avery Davis, safety D.J. Brown, and offensive lineman Cole Mabry. Also, safety Alohi Gilman got banged up late during practice and sat out while defensive back Shaun Crawford continues to have his reps limited by the coaching staff as he comes back from injury.

A cast is no problem for Jahmir Smith.

Earlier this week it wasn’t all rainbows for quarterback Phil Jurkovec. However, he received praise from coach Brian Kelly after Wednesday’s practice and then turned in a very solid workout on Thursday. Jurkovec still wasn’t lighting the world on fire in team situations (it has to suck to watch Book be so efficient working with better talent) but his delivery and mechanics in a lot of individual work was much, much better than Sunday.

We look to be a few more practices away from really seeing separation at the skill positions. The consensus so far is that all the backs look solid (I’d like to see Armstrong make more of a statement, I think) and Thursday was a very physical day for everyone. Grading the receivers in these settings is almost impossible–everyone seems to be doing well, there are a lot of passes thrown, and balls caught. The top 3 (Claypool, Finke, Young) has been on lock for camp, after that we still need more time.

Brock Wright got some positive press after Kmet left with his injury. This is going to be a massive next couple months for Wright who is sneakily unproven with only 87 snaps and 2 catches in his career. Especially because Tremble isn’t in the traditional tight end mold and I get the sense Takacs is struggling to develop a little more than folks are willing to testify at the moment.

Mabry was the 2nd-team tackle for the first practice and with him on the sideline freshman Andrew Kristofic was bumped up to the second unit. The rest of the backups remained the same with Lugg (LT), Ruhland (LG), Grunhard (C), and Dirksen (RG) although it’s been reported Gibbons was rotating in with the Ruhland at guard, too.

If Thursday’s practice is any indication, Julian Okwara is the best player on the team and is rapidly acquiring super powers with each practice. That last part may be an exaggeration.

The front four depth chart is probably settled and won’t change until the games begin:

SDE: Kareem, Ogundeji, Jones, Wardlow, NaNa
DT: MTA, Jay Ademilola, Cross, Spears
NT: Hinish, Lacey, Franklin
SHARK: Okwara, Hayes, Justin Ademilola, Foskey, Oghoufo

I have a hunch Foskey will not redshirt this season. The plan is to redshirt Jamir Jones and Wardlow doesn’t look to be much of a factor to date. I bet Foskey will play enough at his size to cover some holes at strong-side defensive end and ultimately burn a year as they look to rapidly develop him for 2020.

Linebacker continues to confound the rest of the world. Here’s the latest look:

MIKE: White, Bauer, Bertrand, Jones
BUCK: Bilal, Genmark Heath, Simon, Liufau
ROVER: Owusu-Koramoah, Moala, Kiser

So. Many. Questions.

The one name missing is Jack Lamb who wasn’t working in 11-on-11 situations (or very rarely) on Thursday but was still starting with the nickel package. For someone who is believed to be the front runner at Buck this is a bit strange although it could be just getting a young player some rest.

For the second practice in a row Bilal was at Buck instead of Mike. Is this temporary? Is he helping at Buck or not cutting it as much at Mike? I know the staff has really liked Drew White but placing Lamb back into the mix above has that position feeling enormously more talented/better/stronger than the situation at Mike without a veteran like Bilal.

With a handful of guys resting on the bicycles from the secondary it was a little short-staffed on Thursday. Still, we can cobble together this is roughly what the depth chart looks like after the first week:

FIELD: Pride, Crawford (limited), Davis (injury), Agoro, Wallace
FREE: Gilman, Hamilton, Ajavon
STRONG: Elliott, Brown (injured), Allen
BOUNDARY: Vaughn, Griffith (injured), Bracy, Rutherford

Donte Vaughn again received strong reviews in his second performance in front of the media. I’m curious to see how the progress of Griffith and Bracy continues during camp. Both were literally thrown on the field last year and at times didn’t look comfortable. Some believed they’d pick themselves up and improve quickly but if someone like Vaughn really is on his way to locking down a starting spot that could shut down snaps for others really quickly.

I’m not a huge believer of Vaughn long-term but I do like this situation. If he’s practicing pretty well let’s see if others can overcome him and earn playing time.

I’m personally itching to see a nickel pass-rushing lineup like this:

SDE: Ogundeji
DT: Hayes
DT: Kareem
SHARK: Okwara
LB: Owusu-Koramoah
LB: Lamb
NB: Gilman
CB: Pride
S: Elliott
S: Hamilton
CB: Vaughn

I’d imagine the defense will keep an interior lineman (MTA or Hinish) on the field for most of these sets so this is an extremely pass-rush heavy lineup. We don’t know much of how the defensive linemen are going to be used but this back seven is what the media saw at practice on Thursday.

There’s been some talk of Elliott bumping down to a nickel role (so Hamilton can see the field) but I don’t really love his game in that role that much. He’d be fine, I just don’t see him being as explosive attacking on a blitz or covering a slot receiver as well as others. I would hate to take him away from playing center field which is his biggest strength.

If a safety is dropping down I like Gilman a lot more, and reports were that he was being less of a traditional nickel covering a receiver and generally a guy who is moved all over the field while doing a variety of things. This could be because the staff is growing increasingly more comfortable with Owusu-Koramoah’s ability to cover pass-catchers and line him up inside with the ability to move outside. The options to confuse an offense seem endless.

If you knew nothing about Notre Dame’s kicking situation heading into Thursday’s practice the unquestioned starter looked like preferred walk-on Harrison Leonard. Not only did he hit all 5 field goal attempts but the media were impressed with his form, contact, and ball flight. Jonathan Doerer only hit 4 out of his 7 attempts.